Gilbert and Jaime share fairly equally in the glory of Las Mujeres Perdidas, the third collection of their Love & Rockets comics. The book begins with another installment of Jaime's "Mechanics" storyline, with heartthrob Race Rand and the besotted Maggie off to an island to fix robots amid revolutionary chaos. Add former wrestler/heroine Rena Titanon and lovelorn reporter Dot Winks to the mix, and it's another exciting adventure with all sorts of deaths (maybe) and disclosures by the end.

The Gilbert continues with his "Heartbreak Soup" characters of Palomar, as Luba rediscovers her youth and maybe finds love amid broken film projectors, exploding water heaters, second-hand dresses and wild nightclub dances.

Also in this volume, Gilbert gives us a slight bit of insight into the enigmatic Errata Stigmata character. The young boys of Palomar grow up in Gilbert's "The Laughing Sun" when one goes a little crazy and heads for the hills. And Jaime shows how good boy-girl friendships can grow sour when romance enters the equation.

Mario, the third Hernandez, vanishes in this volume, after making only minor contributions in the first two.

The art in Love & Rockets is good. But what makes these books a keeper is the Hernandez brothers' ability to plot. Their stories are intriguing, their characters seem real, full of flaws like the rest of us, and the science-fiction twist on their world is enough to keep things from ever spiralling down into the humdrum or mundane.

[ by Tom Knapp ]